Who Believes in Fairy Tales?
by the Black Rose
Summary: DMxRP. Fluff warning. A princess and her soldier...They said it was like a fairy tale, but life was not a fairy tale. And she was not a fairy tale princess.


**Who Believes in Fairy Tales?**

By the Black Rose

A princess and her soldier - they said it was like a fairy tale, but life was not a fairy tale. And she was not a fairy tale princess. 

They likened her story to the glory days of Camelot, where knights in shining armor rode atop fine white steeds, their snowy manes dancing in the rippling wind. But her supposed 'knight' had fallen down from exhaustion straight into her arms and vanished the next morning to live out an anonymous peaceful life, or so they said.

She smiled into the mirror, placing the tiara atop her gold encrusted head - curls piled in gentle, shimmering clouds. Her long silk and satin gown billowed and fell in luminous waves to just above the tops of her satin shoes. She almost looked like a fairy tale princess today.

The music changed, and Relena took her cue to enter, beaming at the whole assembly who stood up to greet her. She met a pair of dark blue eyes that shone like the diamonds in her tiara, and held their gaze as she floated towards him gracefully down a long aisle of people. The smell of roses perfumed the air, beautiful in an autumnal display of rich, mahogany hues amidst emerald green vines with gold-tipped leaves. A fairy tale castle for a fairy tale princess….

Women in these stories fell suddenly and irrevocably in love…but her love had been nothing like that. Borne of a strong and lasting friendship, love had not been the crashing wave of icy water that beats against a rocky shore, dislodging rocks and eroding away the tender heart beneath. It had not inspired some frenzied gallantry, like the slaying of dragons to prove one's worth.

Love had been more like a lover's gentle caress – chaste at first, the tips of his fingers barely skimming the surface of the skin of her shoulders, then growing into bolder strokes that flamed the fire of passion between them. She blushed at the thought of what they would finally do tonight as she took his offered tuxedo-clad arm, and stepped forward towards what she had come to believe was destiny.

It had grown late, and yet the people still danced beneath golden plumes of sparkling light. Her tiara shone in the moonlit night, her eyes the eternal companion of the stars. She drank in the cool air and shivered mildly with its touch. She didn't have to turn around to know that he was there.

"Hey beautiful, may I have this dance?" Relena could hear the smile in his voice. 

She turned around. "Of course." 

He folded her into his arms as they danced to the faint strains of a familiar melody trickling through the glass-paned doors to a private balcony. A fairy tale prince for a fairy tale princess. 

She looked up at him and smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing," she whispered in reply.

His voice lowered into a secretive hush. "Are you ready," he swallowed, "for tonight?"

She giggled at his expression. "Are you?"

Dark blue eyes glowed through the night. "Hell yeah. This is the good part," he said with a genuine smile.

She playfully swatted at his shoulder. "I should like to think that you married me for more than just sex, Duo Maxwell."

"Think all you want, babe…." His smile slid into a tender look. "You know me better than that." 

She nodded, swallowing against the lump in her throat that formed whenever he stared at her that way. "Yes." She smiled through gathering tears. 

He leaned down and touched his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. She melted into his arms as it deepened into something more. Their bodies continued to sway in time with the harmonious sounds still drifting on the light breeze as the reception guests faded into the background and then completely away.

A princess? No, She was nothing more than an ordinary woman with an extraordinary job barely keeping her head above the struggling tide. And her prince – a war orphan turned soldier who won her heart by being her friend. It was no fairy tale, but that didn't mean it couldn't end happily ever after.

After all, who believed in fairy tales anymore?


End file.
